Ryandor.com

Is there a reason why large/tall trees in UO are in "pieces"? For example, the Yew tree is in, I believe, ten different pieces in InsideUO and the tall one for the jungle terrain is also in quite a few pieces.

Plus, is there a reason why the tree trunks are separate from the leaves?

Are there set dimensions (read hard-coded) that art files have to fit into?

The reason I ask is because I've (tentatively) created some trees to go into a "dead forest" but they're a bit taller (perhaps twice the height) of the standard UO trees. Therefore, would I need to break them up into several art tiles or will the client read them as is?

Thanks for any and all replies and help.

-CMS
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The leaves are separated from the trunks so that it would be easy to have seasons and dead trees? that is why the leaves of evergreen (which always look the same year round) are not separate.

As for trunks/leaves being broken up into multiple pieces, that is only left to right, never due to height.

It is mostly to do with the way the client renders the 2D images, basically, it is quite conceivable (and even likely) that part of the object would be overdrawn by something else that shouldn't overdraw it, or it would itself overdraw something that it shouldn't. In the case of trunks, it also has to do with movement, since movement is on a per-tile basis.

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Blog: http://www.sydius.org
Web: http://www.sydius.net

Large art objects in UO are split between multiple images. You can patch large images in but part of the image will sink into the ground. As Sydius said, it has to do with the way the client works and maintaining an illusion of proper height and dimensions for the art pieces.

(P.S. There is a good utility over at the Dragon web site that splits large artwork into individual frames quite effectively!)

_________________
-= HellRazor =-
Shattered Sosaria is coming!
http://www.shatteredsosaria.com

Thanks for the replies, guys.

HR: Is that the German "Dragon" site? And, do you know what the program is called?

Thanks,

CMS
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Edited to add: I have another question, if I may. Which program (if any) will allow you to delete, or replace, artwork in the art.mul files? For example, if I didn't want to ever use the sandstone walls, could I delete them and put something else in that spot? I know there are a lot of programs that will create/modify the verdata and one (I think) that will edit the .mul files. But, will the .mul editor do what I described? Or is it just for patching in new art into empty slots?

Thanks..

It is the German Dragon site. I can't remember the name of the program, but it is something like "UO Art Cutter". I've tried it and it works very well, it's really one of those hidden gems.

When you are editing art files, there is another file you need to consider, tiledata.mul. Tiledata.mul sets flags for the art file so that the client knows what to do with it (tiledata.mul flags tell the client whether the art emits light, whether it is equippable, how tall it is, etc.)

There are a number of utilities that will allow you to edit these files, I use TDV Mulpatcher for most of my UO editing. It patches directly to the art files. You may want to use Senser's Tiledata.mul editor for the tiledata as its one of the better ones, I'm not sure TDV Mulpatcher has all of the tiledata flags correctly identified.

I'm at work right now so I don't have links available but I'm sure you can dig them up with a little searching either here, over at RunUO, or on google.

_________________
-= HellRazor =-
Shattered Sosaria is coming!
http://www.shatteredsosaria.com

*sigh*

I have looked *everywhere* for that site and that program that will cut my art up to work properly. The only German site I can find, that I *thought* was the right one was uodev.de. Unfortunately, there's no option for "English" and I don't read German. Also, I've done a Google search for both the site and the art cutting program to no avail.

If you (Hellrazor) or anyone else knows the link to the site or, preferably, the program, itself, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Also, as to my other question.....if I use TDV Mulpatcher (which I *was* able to find...hopefully, in English..hehe) to delete art that I don't plan on using from the art.mul (and tiledata.mul)....and replace it with art of my own, will the client read it?

Thanks, bunches, for the replies so far.

-CMS
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It's UO Image Cutter. Here's a link:

http://www.uocm.de/files/uoic.zip

_________________
-= HellRazor =-
Shattered Sosaria is coming!
http://www.shatteredsosaria.com

Thanks, bunches, Hellrazor.

While reading the Sphereserver forums (just checking out the latest versions), I found it just a couple minutes ago.. lol

I knew the uodev site didn't sound or look right but couldn't, for the life of me, remember the correct name.

I really appreciate you taking the time to post it, in any case.

*rushes off to try the program out*

-CMS
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No problem! I haven't used it extensively but I did test it out a few times and it seems to do the job well. It sure beats trying to figure it all out manually!

_________________
-= HellRazor =-
Shattered Sosaria is coming!
http://www.shatteredsosaria.com